NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 20: New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes a question from a man about ‘stop-n-frisk’ after speaking to the media at the site of the ‘Talking Transition’ project in lower Manhattan on November 20, 2013 in New York City. De Blasio announced while there that 60 prominent backers will join his transition team in order to help select the cityÕs next mayoral administration. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) | Spencer Platt via Getty Images

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the New York City stop-and-frisk court cases say the city and the plaintiffs have reached an agreement for a monitor to oversee reforms of the police tactic.

Lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights said Thursday that the deal calls for the reforms to take place under a scenario set down by a federal judge last year.

They say the deal calls for a monitor to serve a three-year term. The monitor will oversee a process in which those communities most affected by the stop-and-frisk tactics will provide input into reforms. The announcement came shortly after the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio filed court papers seeking to drop and appeal of the judge’s findings.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration filed court papers Thursday seeking to drop an appeal of a judge’s decision ordering major reforms to the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy.

The papers filed in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the city was seeking to return the case to a lower court for 45 days “for the purpose of exploring a full resolution.”

A judge ruled last year that the New York Police Department had discriminated against blacks and Hispanics with how it went about stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking people on the street. The judge ordered major reforms to the department’s implementation of the policy.

Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed the decision. But de Blasio, who took office at the beginning of the year, is now seeking to drop the appeal.

Bloomberg was a staunch advocate of the policy and his administration appealed the decision. Stops had soared under his 12-year tenure to more than 5 million in the past decade, mostly of black and Hispanic men. About 10 percent of the stops result in arrests or summonses, and weapons were found about 2 percent of the time.

Four men sued the department in 2008, saying they were unfairly targeted because of their race. U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin presided over a 10-week bench trial where she heard testimony from a dozen New Yorkers who said they were wrongly stopped. She agreed and imposed a court-appointed monitor to oversee reforms, but her ruling has been on hold pending the appeal.

The federal appeals court also took the unusual step of removing Scheindlin from the case, saying she misapplied a related ruling that allowed her to take it to begin with and had spoken inappropriately publically about the case.

De Blasio and his new police commissioner, William Bratton, have said the policy has created a rift among New Yorkers who don’t trust police, and it’s made morale low for officers who should be praised for stellar efforts reducing crime to record lows.

The stop-and-frisk tactic itself was not ruled unconstitutional; rather the way the department was using it violated civil rights, the judge said.